ABSTRACT
In using a term like “Classic anthropology” I am aware of the risks of introducing yet another term with which to pigeonhole a complex and diverse scholarly field. Lowie (1937) focused on schools of thought and their adherents, and Harris, on the whole, did likewise (1968). Stocking (1987) invented “Victorian anthropology,” which includes a major subtype: evolutionary anthropology. And then there is “Boasian anthropology” or “historical particularism.” Penniman (1965) offered four main periods for the modern era, beginning in the late nineteenth century: convergence, construction, critical, and convergence and consolidation. Murray Leaf (1979) divided all Gaul into monistic and dualistic. My Classic era is clearly retrospective: I am looking back on something I experienced as a student and an entering professional, and, on the whole, I admire it and view it with a certain nostalgia. For like all “classic” phenomena—scholarly or automotive—it has a certain integrity.
